track

2nd-5th March 2017

It’s a real shame that the 2017 Para-cycling Track World Championships was announced with only eight weeks’ notice, because it meant that a lot of important riders and teams just weren’t able to race – whether for budget or preparation reasons. It should have been a great move, actually having a Para Track Worlds (not something the UCI prioritises), and running it alongside the able-bodied Track World Cup could be a step towards integrating the Para and Able-bodied Track events, which is something a lot of people have been calling for, for a long time.

But now it’s here, it’s time to focus on the positives!

The racing is in the Los Angeles velodrome, which last weekend hosted the first Track World Cup in the USA for 10 years. The last session is going to have a livestream on the UCI website, on Sunday 5th March, at 1pm USA PDT (4pm EDT; 9pm UK GMT; 22:00 European CET; 8am Monday Australian AEST)

24-26th February 2017

It’s time for the final round of the 2016/7 Track World Cup – and I’m here to tell you how we can watch the final session live, and follow the rest of the action as it happens.

It’s really exciting that it’s in LA, as there hasn’t been a Track World Cup in the USA since 2008.

The UCI will have a livestream on Sunday 26th February that will be a mix of live racing, and highlights of the previous days’, starting at 6pm USA PDT (9pm USA EDT; 2am UK GMT; 03:00 European CET; 1pm Monday Australian AEST).

17th-19th February 2017

The UCI will have a livestream on Sunday 19th February that will be a mix of live racing, and highlights of the previous days’ – I think it will start at 15:30 COT (3:30pm USA EDT; 8:30pm UK GMT; European 21:30 CET; 7:30 Monday AEST). Head to the UCI YouTube or the UCI’s website for that, and for any highlights clips from the racing that might go up before then.

This week we talk through the last few cyclocross races of the season. We also take a quick look at all the track racing that’s coming up soon, including the Paracycling Track World Championships. We take some time to kick off the great team kit voting challenge for 2017, so make sure to visit the post to see the pictures, videos and (of course) to vote! We do talk about some of the tougher stories to have come out recently regarding the types of abuse that have been uncovered in the sport. It’s tough reading and listening, but it is good for the sport to bring these problems to light. (58:23 MIN / 53.47 MB)

Things we talked about this week

Sarah has pulled together the kits for the top 20 women’s teams into one big post, with links to where you can buy them, and most importantly, the 2017 Best Kit poll. Head over here, check them all out, and VOTE!

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Four sobering pieces on bullying, harassment, sexual abuse and other unacceptable practices within women’s cycling:

I loved the 2016 Paralympic Track Cycling – so many amazing races, great riders and wonderful moments – so I’ve collected what I’ve found from it, so you can re-live it, or catch up on the racing if you missed it. I’ve focused on the women’s racing, because overwise this would go on for days, but of course, all the sources I’ve linked to include the men, if you want to have a look for more, and the general overviews include their races too.

Unfortunately, a lot of the videos are geo-restricted – some of the Paralympics YouTube clips are only available in countries without their own TV (but it’s hard to tell, so click each one to check – sorry), and the individual TV stations and often videos on news sites are often geo-retricted to their countries. However, you can use VPN services like Hola or Betternet, to see them (if you don’t know about VPNs, INRNG explains them)

Please forgive that fact I’ve got a lot of British-based coverage – it’s because it’s really good, and obviously because I get to see it! I’ve got coverage from other countries when I’ve seen it, but if you’ve seen good coverage from other countries that you want to share, please do let me know, and I’ll edit it in.

It’s Paralympics time! And we can watch and follow a lot of it! I’ll tell you how, with a bit of information about Para-cycling, if you’re new to the sport.

The Rio 2016 Track Para-Cycling runs from 8-11th September 2016, and we should be able to watch all of it live. The schedule and information is all on this Rio 2016 page, and startlists will turn up around 24 hours before each event when you click the “event” tab above the schedule, which will also have the results – and when there’s a “running” icon next to each race, click through it for the live-timing. Or you can find it all on this Paralympic Games page.

Rio is in the BRST timezone, 4 hours behind UK BST, 5 hours behind Euro CEST, 13 hours behind Aussie AEST (ouch) and 1 hour ahead of North American EDT, and all morning sessions start at 10am BRST (2pm UK BST, 15:00 Euro CEST, 11pm AEST and 9am EDT), and the evening sessions (with most of the medals) at 16:30 BRST (8:30pm UK BST; 21:30 CEST; 3:30pm EDT; 5:30am AEST). Livestreams are the internationl feeds – if they’re not available in your country, scroll down for how to watch

You’ll notice that this doesn’t include the Tandem Sprinting or C1-5 Points races, and that’s very sad, as they’re such wonderful races to watch. I don’t know why the UCI agreed this programme, but I hope they change this for the future.

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The Road Racing is from 14-17th September, and the 9:30am BRST session = 1:30pm BST; 14:30 CEST; 10:30pm AEST; 8:30am EDT. Hit schedule on this page to get the timetables, and “event” above each page for the startlists and results – hopefully that results tab will also include live timing. Or you can find information on this Paralympic Games page.

The road races are based in Pontal, on the same roads the Rio 2016 Able Bodied Road Race and ITTs took place on – including the Tandem and C4-5 rides taking on the Grumari Circuit – that first set of climbs and descents in the Able-Bodied Road Race, and was the lap for the ITT. Details of the courses, and what each category of riders will race, in the Spectator guide.

Depressingly it doesn’t look like we’ll be able to watch the Road Races live, and I think this is connected to the massive budget issues, but there is live-timing.

We’re eventually going to see all the Olympic bike races put up on the Olympics Youtube, but until then, here’s what we can watch from the Rio 2016 women’s cycling – road race, ITT, track, BMX and MTB, with various other bits and pieces I’ve found.

If you want to compare and contrast what happened in Rio with previous Olympics, head to the Olympic Channel, where you can search by sport, and under the Rio 2016 videos, you’ll find highlights from previous years too.

A lot of the Olympic media is geo-restricted to countries (INRNG tells you more about restrictions, and how to see things despite them), so if there’s more you want to see, do try searching with your country’s broadcaster – I’ve added the BBC links because I can see them all from the UK, but hopefully you can find them in your country too. If there’s anything you especially enjoyed, please do tell me, and I’ll edit it in.